Oct
31
New name
October 31, 2008 | 2 Comments
I’ve decided to change the name of my blog because too many people are arriving here through ‘pot’ (not the conventional garden variety) searches. I just don’t want some short-sighted employer googling my name, seeing the title, and immediately thinking that I spend my time writing about puffing the magic dragon. Too much of a [...]
Oct
25
Gay Sibling = More Game
October 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Stumbled upon this awesome Economist article on trying to make evolutionary sense of homosexuality.
Genes that make some people gay make their brothers and sisters fecund
“They think that genes which cause men to be more feminine in appearance, outlook and behaviour and those that make women more masculine in those attributes, confer reproductive advantages as long [...]
Oct
23
Genetic Discrimination and Health Insurance
October 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
That’s the subject we’re discussing in our reading group next week. I got to googling a bit and came across an old Reason article that I just wanted to store on this blog. Man, I should really renew that subscription that I gave up a few years ago.
Will genetic testing destroy the insurance market?
I completely [...]
Oct
23
Interesting view on Charity vs. Government Benefits
October 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Allen Buchanan has argued that private charity can justify a public grant funded by mandatory taxation if enough citizens individually would have made contributions on the condition that others did likewise and if the difficulty of coordinating their actions collectively in the absence of government compulsion prevented these individual citizens from making their conditional gifts.
That’s [...]
Oct
21
Where’s the (Argentine humane) beef?
October 21, 2008 | 3 Comments
Winter is swiftly approaching and this Texan has started investigating ways of acquiring sustenance without having to battle the bitter Cambridge cold. Seriously, it’s only October and I’m already starting to feel the pain (with highs in the 40s) of pushing my little cart to the grocery store. My estimation is that by mid-November I’ll [...]
Oct
14
Rules on Animal Engineering
October 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I’ve been catching up on my feeds lately and this article definitely is worth mentioning:
NYT: Rules Near for Animal Engineering
“The first animal to go through these regulatory steps would probably be an Atlantic salmon developed by Aqua Bounty Technologies of Waltham, Mass. It contains DNA from another type of salmon and from pout, another ocean [...]
Oct
14
America’s Contradictory Attitude Toward Healthcare
October 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Great post at “Health Beat” on Princeton Economist Uwe Reinhardt’s views on the American healthcare non-system: How U.S. Health Care Mirrors the Contradictions Ingrained in the Minds and Souls of America’s Citizens
“New Jersey’s experience illustrates why we cannot insist that insurers sell policies to everyone, young or old, sick or healthy at a reasonable price—unless [...]